1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to multifunctional furniture, and more particularly to a multifunctional furniture article comprising a stationary seat frame, a back frame, and a leg frame arrangement which is capable of providing extensive support to the stationary seat frame and the back frame when they are selectively used in a sitting mode and a bedding mode.
2. Description of Related Arts
Referring to FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B of the drawings, a conventional multifunction furniture article, such as a sofa bed, usually comprises a stationary seat frame 10P, a back frame 20P, a supporting frame 30P, and a plurality of legs 40P provided underneath the stationary seat frame 10P and the supporting frame 30P. As shown in FIG. 1A of the drawings, when the furniture article is used as a sofa, the back frame 20P is pivotally and upwardly extended from the stationary seat frame 10P to form a predetermined angle of inclination with respect to the stationary seat frame 10P, while the supporting frame 30P is rearwardly extended from the stationary seat frame 10P. Note that the legs 40P are spacedly provided underneath the stationary seat frame 10P and the supporting frame 30P for providing support to the sofa bed as a whole.
As shown in FIG. 1B of the drawings, when the furniture article is used as a bed, the back frame 20P is pivotally and downwardly moved to align with the stationary seat frame 10P to rest on the supporting frame 30P. At this position, both the stationary seat frame 10P and the back frame 20P are supported by the legs 40P.
There are several disadvantages in associated with this conventional multifunctional furniture article. First, because the sofa bed is intended to be selectively used as a sofa or a bed, when it is used as a bed, the supporting frame 30P is primarily used for supporting the back frame 20P when it is pivotally moved to align with the seat frame 10P. As a result, there exists a tension between the size of the supporting frame 30P and the supporting strength needed for providing adequate support to the back frame 20P when the furniture is used as a bed. When the size of the supporting frame 30P is large, although it provides fairly good support to the back frame 20P, it significantly affect the aesthetic appearance of the entire furniture, and prohibits the sofa from being positioned next to a wall surface, as the supporting frame 30P must be rearwardly extended from the seat frame 10P. This severely limits widespread application of the conventional sofa bed. Moreover, when the size of the supporting frame 30P is too large, a rear edge 31P of the supporting frame 30P may bias against a wall surface when the furniture is used as a sofa. The rear edge 31P may be sharp enough to cause peeling of paint or otherwise cause damage to the wall surface.
On the other hand, when the size of the supporting frame 30P is too small, although it does not significant affect the aesthetic appearance of the entire furniture, it does not provide adequate support to the back frame 20P either. The result is that the sofa bed may break down very easily, especially when the person sleeping thereon is very heavy.
Second, there exists one type of sofa beds which has a sliding seat frame so that when a user needs to use it as a bed, the seat frame may be slid frontwardly and the back frame is pivotally moved to align with the seat frame. The problem with this type of conventional sofa bed is that the frame is complicated in structure. Moreover, almost all of these frames are made of metallic material and the cushion is put on top of the bed frame, they do not generally have very good aesthetic appearance. Furthermore, anyone seeing this type of sofa beds will notice that the bed frame and the cushion are two separate components, yet it is very difficult to make the cushion and the frame become one integral body because of the existence of the sliding seat frame.